WE FEEL THEIR PAIN
Molly-Mae Hague’s split from Tommy Fury is as big as Charles and Diana – millions of Brits will be devastated
As a couple, Tommy and Molly-Mae lived their life online and we devoured their every move
CELEBRITY break-ups are ten a penny, but the end of Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury’s romance feels seismic and for many – like me – deeply personal.
Unlike Hollywood couples, or even royals, their love blossomed and grew in real time in front of the nation’s eyes, like a five year-long romcom we could watch every second of.
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If you’re wondering who the heck this couple are, and why their split is taking up column inches, being talked about on daytime TV and is even on the news, then buckle in.
It all started in 2019, when Molly-Mae entered the Love Island villa on day four.
They were like Romeo and Juliet — if Juliet wore a thong bikini.
He was from Irish traveller boxing stock, the brother of “Gypsy King” Tyson Fury.
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She was a Home Counties beauty pageant winner and the daughter of two police officers.
On paper, it shouldn’t have worked, yet from the minute they met in a hot tub, he declared her “100 per cent my type”.
They may not have won the series (Amber and Greg who?), but the final episode was the most-watched finale in Love Island history, with a peak audience of 4.1million.
And as they left the villa, we were all rooting for them.
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As the most genuinely loved up couple on the series, they had won our hearts.
For five years, we have followed their every move on social media — including the birth of their daughter, Bambi, in January 2023, and their engagement six months later.
Tommy Fury's Wild Nights and Family Time
So when the news broke that they were separating this week, announced via simple text on an all-black background on Molly-Mae’s Instagram, it felt like someone had died. Love had died.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d ever have to write this,” she typed.
After five years of being together I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way
Molly-Mae Hague
“After five years of being together I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way.”
My god, nor did we. My WhatsApps immediately began popping off with expressions of disbelief.
“Oh my god!”, “Gutted!” and “u ok hun?”. I felt like when my parents announced they were getting a divorce. But, y’know, worse.
On social media, fans seemed to have lost the plot.
“Where is your statement on the molly mae and tommy fury split @Keir_Starmer !!!!! The country needs stability in this troubling time,” one user of X wrote.
A pub-goer announced he was “wearing a black armband to Slug And Lettuce tonight”. Another wrote, “surely the Molly Mae and Tommy split calls for a bank holiday”.
And one devastated Vinted seller announced she was shutting up shop because she was so distraught by the shock announcement, explaining how it had affected her mental health.
Even celebs were weighing in, with comedian Katherine Ryan expressing how she had spent “12 hours of being livid with Tommy Fury”.
But why? It’s because we’d been through it all with Molly-Mae and Tommy.
Their first date, first house, first cheeky Nando’s.
With 13million Instagram followers between them, this was a fairytale for the GRWM (get ready with me) generation.
Perhaps, for those of a different era, this is like when Charles and Diana announced they were calling it quits.
Or Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Brad and Jen or Kylie and Jason.
But, dare I say it, even more devastating?
Because for the first time, we have had an “access all areas” pass to our favourite couple’s love life. We were in the know, or so we thought.
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Yes, there had been cheating rumours, but everything seemed so perfect, so dreamy. If these guys can’t make it work, how can any of us?
And while many of their followers are Gen Z — in their early 20s, making sense of the world — it’s millennials, women like me in our 30s and 40s, who this break-up has hit hardest.
We’re the ones for whom Love Island is our guilty pleasure every summer.
And yes, of course we realise we didn’t really know them, but we’ve all been through break-ups that have knocked us for six, so we know what Molly-Mae is going through.
I keep going back to my normal life — to my work, to packing lunch for my daughter — then the shock will hit me all over again.
As a couple, Tom and Moll lived their life online and we devoured their every move.
We rooted for them as they built a life together in Cheshire.
We’ve been through the highs (him buying her a puppy, the glam holidays) and the lows (the dog died and they got burgled back in 2021).
We watched their pregnancy announcement (in classy black and white) and the birth of their baby Bambi (what a name!) last year.
Many of us admired Molly-Mae — she was a “boss girl” with a multi-million pound deal as creative director of PrettyLittleThing.
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She was a mum at 23 and spoke about how she wanted a humongous family.
She showed her vulnerable side — explaining to fans why she decided to get her lip and jaw fillers dissolved, and how difficult it was being trolled about everything from her postpartum body to parenting choices.
When Tommy finally popped the question, on a rose petal-strewn clifftop in Ibiza last year, we thought this was the happily ever after we’d dreamed of.
We could only imagine Molly-Mae’s wedding dress and the endless brand tie-ins.
Forget Posh and Becks on thrones. It would’ve been like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding meets the Home Counties version of The Kardashians.
But, alas, it was not to be. Now anyone who believes in true love is scratching their head and trying to make sense of the fallout.
We’re scouring their social media for clues and going down weird online wormholes.
We all have a theory on this one. It’s alleged Tommy cheated on Molly-Mae with a Danish woman on a lads’ holiday in Macedonia.
There’s even a rumour he fathered another child. But is any of it true?
Or has he simply not supported her enough after they had the baby?
We have unprecedented access to celebrities’ lives. They’re no longer just distant figures on a screen or in a magazine
Emma Kenny
What’s really gone down?
It is normal to feel upset when a celebrity couple splits, according to psychologist Emma Kenny.
“This fascination is deeply rooted in a psychological phenomenon known as ‘parasocial attachment’,” she reveals.
“That is a one-sided relationship where a person develops a deep emotional connection with someone they don’t actually know, like a celebrity.”
And Emma says, social media has fuelled this attachment.
“We have unprecedented access to celebrities’ lives. They’re no longer just distant figures on a screen or in a magazine; they’re sharing candid moments, interacting with fans and offering glimpses into their personal worlds.
“This level of access makes it easy to feel like we’re part of their lives.
“We see celebrity couples who seem to have it all — beauty, wealth, success, and, of course, love. They’re living the dream and it’s easy to project our fantasies on to them.”
For many of us, this is exactly what Tommy and Molly were — an example of what could be.
As a couple, their appeal was the fact they felt so relatable. It is that sense of elevated ordinariness.
This level of access makes it easy to feel like we’re part of their lives
Emma Kenny
Despite their lavish mansion and designer clothes, they liked staying in with a Deliveroo and a bottle of wine. They’d go on date nights to the movies, he’d buy her flowers.
Molly-Mae and Tommy are like all of us, but a little bit fancier and with better hair.
They seemed to genuinely love each other, unlike most of the “snatching five minutes of fame” reality couples.
Popular culture expert Nick Ede explains how Molly-Mae and Tommy were a winning formula — crossing many points of cultural reference and social media platforms.
She is the girl next door who has become a multi-millionaire. He is the seemingly gentlemanly boxer, but also a lads’ lad who has been hugely successful since leaving the villa.
He’s won ten fights in his pro career, including one with YouTube sensation Jake Paul.
“It’s that age-old adage of, ‘If they can do it, anyone can’,” says Nick.
“And now their dreams, and those of their followers, are shattered.”
Just like when a forever couple in your friendship group calls it quits, we’ll all have to pick a side in this.
Tommy has reportedly lost 20k followers already, while Molly-Mae’s popularity is set to soar. If she has been wronged, as rumours suggest, we’ll all be Team Molly, for sure.
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In her painful and cryptic Insta post, Molly-Mae wrote: “I’ll be back when it feels right.”
But she won’t be back with Tommy. And there aren’t enough heartbreak emojis in the world to express how that feels right now.
'He was a cheat in past'
Exclusive By Lottie Hulme
DEVASTATED Molly-Mae Hague first confronted Tommy Fury over cheating rumours three years ago, it’s been claimed.
She is said to have become suspicious after he reportedly snubbed her calls and messages while he was in Las Vegas for a 2021 training camp with his boxer brother, Tyson.
A source said: “He was acting weird out there, not answering his phone or messages. When he came back, something wasn’t right. Molly asked him if he had cheated. He denied it.
“She had no proof so had to leave it. But she was worried something had happened.”
Molly-Mae’s representative declined to comment.
The Love Island star, 25, has split with Tommy as allegations emerged he had been unfaithful with a Danish woman on a lads’ holiday in Macedonia.
Friends close to Molly-Mae – who was seen out for the first time since the split on Thursday – told The Sun she was now expecting more women to come forward about Tommy’s betrayals.
A source said: “Molly-Mae is now aware Tommy was unfaithful to her. She believes it has happened a number of times.
“It seems he would play away when he knew people wouldn’t recognise him. Molly-Mae has been completely crushed by this.
“She thought she could trust Tommy completely.”
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